A hat-trick for Wayne Rooney against Chelsea on Sunday and he’ll have had the best unbroken start to a league campaign by a United player in the club’s history.

Bannockburn-born James Turnbull scored 10 times in a blistering five-match opening to the 1908-09 season.

The Scot is described in one United history biog as ‘a well-built, all-action forward with seemingly boundless dash and energy and an excellent scoring record.’ Remind you of anyone?

Would you bet against Rooney trotting home with another match ball this weekend in the form he is in?

Bolton’s Gary Cahill made an impressive start to his England career with two clean sheets against Bulgaria and Wales and he was a sought-after commodity in the transfer window.

But the 25-year-old was among those torn apart at the Reebok by rampant Rooney, who now has figures of eight goals from the first four matches.

Rooney could even have matched or beaten Jack Rowley’s nine-goal burst at the opening of the 1951-52 season he was that much on-fire.

And if he does score another treble this weekend he’ll be the first Red ever to score three threes in a row.

Against Bolton, Rooney became the first United player to score back-to-back hat-tricks since Denis Law smashed Swedish side Djurgarden in the Fairs Cup and Aston Villa in the league back in October 1964.

The last United player to score consecutive trebles in the league was Alex Dawson in December 1960.

The first to achieve it was in the club’s guise of Newton Heath when Henry Boyd put Lincoln City and Burton Swifts to the sword in September 1897 in Division Two.

Rooney is attacking Old Trafford’s Hall of Fame with gusto and stattos are having a field day as he puts the Reds’ goalscoring legends under threat.

After his hat-trick against Arsenal he had Sir Bobby Charlton’s all-time 249 United goal record in his sights.

Now with seven hat-tricks to his name since 2004, Rooney has equalled Charlton’s career tally.

He’s chasing down Rowley’s three hat-tricks in the seven opening matches in August 1951 and Stretford End King Law looks set to relinquish his record of 18 United hat-tricks.

No feat is beyond Wayne Rooney in this mood.

And it is incredible to think it wasn’t until March last season that he recorded his eighth goal of that troubled campaign.

Only City as a club in the Premier League have managed to score more goals so far than Rooney as be blazes a trail to the Golden Boot.

United’s collective 18 goals is their best ever Premier League haul at the beginning of a season – all this and last season’s top scorer Dimitar Berbatov has not even scored yet!

The Bulgarian must be getting more than a touch worried now as, having been overlooked in favour of Danny Welbeck, Javier Hernandez is now back and scoring.

If last season’s title triumph was lacking United’s normal flair, imagination and excitement – this awesome and spectacular start is certainly making up for it.

United are already 11 goals better off from the corresponding fixtures last season against West Brom, Spurs, Arsenal and Bolton.

The Reebok last September summed up United’s stuttering start, particularly away from home.

They were leaking goals and needed to call on that never-say-die spirit to rescue a point in the 2-2 draw.

This comprehensive destruction couldn’t have been more opposite.

Bolton were simply swept away by the Reds’ power, panache and predatory instincts.

But there was a distinct element of them being made to look bad by Sir Alex Ferguson’s astonishing attacking side. And it was the kind of demolition Bolton deserved after the way they blatantly went about attempting to soften up the Reds.

Paul Robinson, Kevin Davies and Mark Davies all crudely got stuck into their tactics early on.

It left Phil Jones winded, the unfortunate Tom Cleverley in a protective boot and Patrice Evra bruised.

United’s punishing retort was as legally brutal as Bolton’s was illegally.

It was all over after 24 minutes with the Reds making it plainly obvious that, having exposed an Achilles heel down Bolton’s left flank, they were not going to go easy on it.

All three first-half goals came via United’s right wing and all three were executed with killer finishing.

The first came from Nani’s cross and before any white shirt could begin to attack the ball, Hernandez had escaped all markers, found near post space and tucked it away.

The Mexican proved, in his first start of the season, Fergie’s belief that he is such quality that defenders won’t be able to do enough homework to inflict second season syndrome on the 23-year-old. Rooney’s first was courtesy of Jones’ excellent whipped-in cross and the impressive £16.5m teenager then went on a Ronaldo-style slalom, exchanging a swift one-two with Nani before being denied by Jussi Jaaskelainen.

Not surprisingly nobody reacted quicker to the loose ball than Rooney again.

Hernandez was denied in the first half by an offside call but the route to that ‘goal’ was exactly the same.

United’s fourth came in a similar fashion with Nani panicking Bolton as he came in from the right and Rooney again snapping up a loose ball.

And the goal blueprint was followed to the letter by the fifth as Nani drilled in a low cross from the right and Rooney on the edge of the box swung the ball home.

It was all so obvious but Bolton hadn’t a clue how to stop it and there is a good chance the majority of the Premier League will be as perplexed.